37. Cory Booker (US Senator) – Cynicism: a Refuge for Cowards

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2016

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“We all have so much power that we don’t use. And I think it’s because of cynicism, which is a toxic spiritual state. Cynicism is a refuge for cowards.” –– Cory Booker Why do so many of us choose to remain in a state of "sedentary agitation" about America's problems when there are so many things we could do to help? This is the core question of UNITED, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker's powerful new political biography. And it surfaces again and again on this week's THINK AGAIN as Senator Booker and host Jason Gots talk race, poverty, hope, and apathy in America, 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Huh, have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?
0:03.0	Not much to it, is there?
0:06.0	Unless, of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.
0:10.0	Mmm, that is good.
0:13.0	Now that's what Asani should sound like.
0:16.0	Go all crisp in with walkers.
0:18.0	Delicious.
0:20.0	Hey there, I'm Jason Gatz and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.
0:29.5	Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas in small, powerful doses from the most
0:35.0	creative thinkers of our time.
0:36.9	The Think Again podcast takes us far out of our comfort zone.
0:40.4	We surprise some of the smartest people you know with ideas they're not prepared to discuss.
0:45.1	I'm very happy today to be speaking with Senator Cory Booker of the state of New Jersey,
0:49.3	the former mayor of Newark.
0:51.1	His new book is a political memoir that's a call for unity, courage, and honesty
0:56.0	in facing and fixing America's worst problems, poverty, gun violence, and mass incarceration.
1:02.0	It's called United. Welcome to think again, Senator.
1:05.0	Thank you very much. It's really good to be with you.
1:07.0	I wanted to start by discussing a quote in your book about the difference between love and
1:12.6	tolerance.
1:13.6	You write, tolerance is becoming accustomed to injustice.
1:17.6	Love is becoming disturbed and activated by another's adverse condition.
	...

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